A fraudulent win
International Viewpoint #245 May 1993 granted a special pay formula which effectively index-linked their pay. Now the government proposes to abolish this formula and this is certain to be bitterly resisted.
At the same time the government will also face a challenge from the major teaching unions, which have decided to boycott work on the planned summer national tests THE presidential elections of February 21 have not satisfied the for all 14 year olds in school, in protest at the tremendous democratic expectations which greeted the adoption of the huge workload the tests impose. Behind this new electoral code.' In the end, the Socialist Party, a member of the action is also massive opposition to the
Socialist International, and its allies have made plain their total lack of reactionary educational philosophy implied in the governments' National Curriculum and compulsory testing at ages 7, 11 and 14.
The past period has shown that John Major's government is a much weaker government than that of his predecessor Margaret Thatcher. While she never had a majority of less than 100, Major has a majority of only 20, making him vulnerable to Conservative Party revolts.
However, there are signs of a temporary stabilisation in the crisis which erupted last autumn, when sterling collapsed, the pits revolt started and opposition in the Conservative Party to Maastricht became more strident.
There are signs of a very limited industrial upturn. A weak economic recovery will not solve mass unemployment, but it will strengthen the government's hand with its own supporters in the middle classes as business confidence improves. A series of skillful parliamentary manoeuvres have put the opponents of the Maastricht Treaty on the defensive. It seems certain now that provided Denmark votes 'yes' in the coming referendum, Parliament will ratify the treaty.
If the government does temporarily overcome its current crisis, workers face a major new threat — legislation to effectively ban all strikes among public employees. Detailed preparations for such legislation are being made.
The spectacle of a very weak and divided government still able to get away with major attacks on the working class is entirely due to the continued absolute dominance of the Labour Party rightwing and the 'new realist' trade union leaders. It is not the strength of the government, but the relationship of forces in the labour movement which prevents Major's government being brushed aside.
This relationship of forces is the product of the last 15 years of struggle, and the huge defeats suffered by the trade unions, in the first place the defeat of the 1984-85 miners' strike. It is inconceivable that such gigantic defeats could be reversed through one wave of strike action, involving at most half a million workers. The road to recovery for the British workers movement will be long and hard; but the first green shoots of recovery are at last visible. * respect for democracy. B. N'DAIYE*- Dakar, April 2, 1993
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INCE February 20, the Rassemblement Bokk Yakaar has been denouncing fraudulent practices such as multiple registration (two or more election registration cards delivered to the same person and the registration of youths under 18 years old on the electoral rolls. Even clandestine registration offices have been discovered at the residences and offices of some Socialist Party (PS) leaders after the official closing date.
Indeed, the PS fraud machine has functioned as a system organized around specific mechanisms involving the use of the State apparatus and its administration - of which certain key sectors were put to work holding up the delivery of identity cards. This has been confirmed by the American National Democratic Institute (NDI), who were among the international observers.
According to their report, "Many registered voters could not get their election registration cards and/or their national identity cards before the voting day. Problems associated with the distribution of these documents have damaged confidence in this aspect of the electoral process."
Moreover, before the official campaign the media was used to full effect to cover the campaign in disguise of Abdou Diouf, his ministers and his wife who had been put in charge of a foundation called "Solidarity and Sharing". During the official campaign, the PS candidate received a disproportionate amount of media coverage, in spite of the limits set by the electoral code.
Then there was the huge expenditure; with its budget around 14bn CFA francs (280m French francs= $52m), the PS distributed enormous sums to influence-peddlers to get their support. PS leaders went so far as to offer 10 to 15,000 CFA to those who agreed to tear up their electoral cards or to attend Diouf's public meetings. All Senegalese are wondering: where did all this money come from?
Threats and selective repression by the minister of the interior also played an important role. For example, two central youth leaders, Talla Sylla of Youth for an Alternative (JPA) and Brin of Daneel Abdou ("overthrow Abdou") were arrested.
Pressures were exerted against the opposition from the NDiggeul, the Supreme Leadership of obedience to the spiritual head.
There was widespread distribution of false ordonnances — legal forms which in specific cases are used to replace election cards — for purposes of multiple voting. The minister of infrastructure and maritime affairs, a member of the political bureau of the PS, was caught in the process of distributing them in Ziguinchor in the south of the country.
Stocks of US-manufactured indelible ink, acquired to identify those who had already voted, suddenly disappeared.
The international media supported the fraud and provoked the Senegalese people. How else can one interpret the broadcast by Radio France Internationale of the February 26 results crediting Diouf with victory - while the work of the National Electoral Commission was still incomplete?3
The Constitutional Council confirmed the results in spite of the fact that the oppo sition and a significant part of the population contested them. When the Electoral
* member of And Jef/PADS (And Jef/African Party for Democracy and Socialism, an organization founded in 1991 uniting groups of the radical left.
1. The electoral code made voter identification, polling booths and indelible ink obligatory.
2. This means "those that share the same hope" and brings together parties, groups, unions and indivuduals.
3. The Electoral Commission is composed of representatives of political parties and a magistrate, who are all fulltime members. Diouf wants to change its character before the May legislative elections and make party members observers. As for RFI, it will soon be allotted another time slot on the Senegalese airwaves.
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International Viewpoint #245 May 1993
Commission found itself unable to continue its work, with the reports from voting stations being transmitted directly to the Constitutional Council, its president Keba Mbaye resigned, thus totally discrediting the highest legal body in the land.
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In spite of all the fraudulent practices, the PS was defeated in Dakar, the capital
SENEG city, as well as in This, Pikine and other important districts. This will undoubtedly have a big effect on the relationship of forces between the union federation which collaborates with the regime, the CNTS, and the new and powerful independent union federation, the UNSAS.
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GUINEA une left ran a separate Campatgn. Long GUINEA-PISSAU before the elections, the question of left unity was placed on the agenda. The former prime minister, Mamadou Dia, from the Movement for Socialism and Unity (MSU), took initiatives in this direction which unfortunately ended in separate can-
The Democratic League/Labour Party Movement (LD/MPT) had the slogan Jallarbi, a word which means "far-reaching change" — but at the same time did not reject the programmes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. After the events in the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe, this formerly pro-Moscow party became a supporter of the mixed economy. It ran its campaign around the idea of running the country in a different way, and came in fourth position behind the PS, the liberals of the Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS) and And Jef/PADS.
The PAI and its split-away group, the PIT — both of Stalinist origin - made a block with the PS to support Diouf. The nationalist organizations (PLP, RND) got relatively low scores even though the themes of their campaigns took up the general concerns of the population: "ethical management", "ministers who do work", and so forth.
The And Jef/PADS campaign was waged in the framework of the Rassemblement Bokk Yakaar under the slogan "Folli Abdou", which means "depose Abdou". This call is based on the living conditions of the Senegalese people, which have deteriorated as a result of the application of the IMF's structural adjustment plans, and on their desire to get rid of Diouf
Through the promotion of the "Folli", the Rassemblement Bokk Yakaar had two principle objectives: to defeat Diouf and to put an end to the bipolarization of political life around the PS and the PDS.4 As such, the "Folli" can be seen as an obiective of a "republican revolution" — that is, the dismantling of an all-powerful presidency and of clientelism and corruption.
The hope was that such a campaign 10 would accelerate the emergence of an alternative political force around themes
• the abrogation of agreements which preserve the country's economic and military domination (including the foreign debt
• making the big debters who pillaged the banks and state enterprises pay and recovering money deposited in foreign
• implementing an agrarian reform through a revision of the national property law
• building African unity along popular
In the end, the presidential elections did not lead to a "folli". The absence of a single left candidate partially explains this state of affairs, as do the many illusions regarding the new electoral law.
In spite of its score of 2.94%, the AJ/PADS candidacy of Landing Savané is credited with having run the best election campaign. This score is very much lower than the actual social forces of And Jef/PADS and the Rassemblement Bokk Yakkaar and their relationship with the
Before and during the elections, there was a kind of strategic voting which worked in favour of the liberal candidate, A. Wade, who was seen as the best placed to defeat Diouf - which deprived Savané of thousands of votes. It was not surprising to hear during the campaign, "the country should be run by those who are familiar with the State."
Nevertheless, And Jef/PADS has definitely carved out an audience for its project, which has been translated into a flux of several hundreds of youth, women, workers and peasants into the party. While the party has to fulfill the immense organizational responsibilities which this presents, it also has to prepare for the May legislative elections.
Indeed, the opposition finds itself trapped in a kind of electoral noose: the people of Senegal will return to the polls four times between now and 1995: regional, municipal and rural elections. But the deepening of the social crisis (regionalist flare-ups, student strikes, and so forth) and the inability of the PS, undermined by the various clans, to respond to the situation only deepens the population's rejection of Diouf.
The slate of PS candidates created serious tensions at its base, since it contained a number of candidates known to be involved in embezzlement and the pillage of the state enterprises.
But the opposition has not been able to develop any resistance to the electoral strong-arm tactics. Aside from the spontaneous resistance of youths who burned down the houses of certain PS leaders, there is no significant activity.
The PDS call to make April 5, 6 and 7 days of national mourning runs the risk of failure. The opposition is more concerned about the legislative elections which it feels will produce a parliament in which it holds a majority of seats.
Even the left has been swept up in this logic, characterized by an inadequate understanding of the role of the Parliament and its place in the "Folli" process. This absence of response is disorienting the masses, who doubt the effectiveness of elections as a means to capture power.
The future of the left is at stake: in the run-up to the elections it is still divided -the LD-MPT going alone, the PLP boycotting the elections, while And Jef/PADS, the RND, the CDP and independents have formed a single slate under the name Jappoo ("unity"). *
4. The PDS formed a government with the PS, called "the cake-sharing government". The liberals quit the government in October 1992.
5. Elites can borrow from the banks without ever having the intention to pay back their debts
- WORLD ECONOMY -